In many industries, rapid cooling, chilling or freezing of items is desirable. While currently available cooling and freezing techniques perform adequately in many instances, numerous industries could benefit from faster or more efficient cooling or freezing methods. Consider, for example, the frozen food industry. The taste, texture, and general appearance of many vegetables, fruits, etc., can vary significantly depending upon the rate at which the item is cooled. Additionally, faster cooling can shorten the time needed to get a frozen food item to market and decrease the amount of inventory storage. For example, if unfrozen product could be received, frozen, and shipped all in the same day, remarkable cost savings might be achieved.
Commercial establishments such as restaurants, hotels, convenience stores, etc. can benefit from rapid cooling of food and beverages that are normally served chilled. For example, if bottled or canned beverages could be chilled quickly enough, only a small number of bottles or cans would need to be kept cool at any one time; most of a stores inventory could be chilled “on demand.” As a result, the use of costly, energy consuming refrigerators could be reduced.
Other industries, such as the medical and pharmaceutical industries, may also benefit from rapid cooling of items. These industries rely on various tissues, organs, serums, medicines, etc., to be cooled or frozen. In general, the more quickly such items can be cooled, the longer the items should remain usable.